RuCo bimetallic alloy nanoparticles immobilized on multi-porous MIL-53(Al) as a highly efficient catalyst for the hydrolytic reaction of ammonia borane

Abstract Well-dispersed bimetallic RuCo alloy nanoparticles (NPs) were successfully immobilized on the multi-porous, water-tolerant metal organic frameworks MIL-53(Al) by a facile solvent impregnation method. Among the RuCo@MIL-53(Al) with different Ru/Co molar ratios, the Ru 1 Co 1 @MIL-53(Al) performed better and was superior to Ru@MIL-53(Al) and single RuCo NPs for the hydrolysis of ammonia borane (AB, NH 3 BH 3 ), owing to the synergistic effect caused by the electronic and geometric interactions between Ru and Co atoms and bi-functional effect generated between the RuCo NPs and the MIL-53(Al) support. Compared with bimetallic Ru 1 Ni 1 and Ru 1 Cu 1 counterparts loadings, the Ru 1 Co 1 @MIL-53(Al) also showed better catalytic activity for the hydrolysis of AB. Moreover, the Ru 1 Co 1 @ MIL-53(Al) presented good durability and reusability in the catalytic reaction, and the activation energy (Ea) and turnover frequency values (TOF) were 34.32 kJ mol −1 and 87.24 mol H 2 min −1 (mol Ru) −1 , respectively.